Cowboys Week Two: Back on Track
The Cowboys offense was rolling while the defense started to pick up the pieces.
The Cowboys course corrected in week two with a 37-20 win against the Commanders at home. This comes on the heels of an infuriating week one loss at the Giants where they made the Giants offense look like the greatest show on Earth. There were a lot of promising notes from this game with a still strong amount of question marks that will need to be answered in the coming weeks.
Dak Prescott became the Cowboys all-time leading touchdown passer, passing Tony Romo’s previous mark of 249 touchdowns. For a franchise with legends such as Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman, and (not as legendary but still great) Tony Romo- Dak now sits alone at the top of greatness in his 10th season as the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. We have been blessed with almost 25 years of strong quarterback play- and I sincerely hope Dak comes home with a Lombardi before his career is all said and done so we don’t forget his greatness in the sport.
The Cowboys passing game hummed along- Dak threw completed 26 passes on 31 attempts for 279 yards and four touchdowns (and one “Absolute piss missle” according to Tom Brady.) CeeDee had eight catches for 153 and two tuddies, Ferguson had four catches, 43 yards, and the other two touchdowns. This was the Cowboys football we all expected to see this season. The running game struggled though- the team rushed for 66 yards on 21 carries. Javonte couldn’t get his feet underneath him- totaling 30 yards on 12 attempts. There were real struggles here, and hopefully the Cowboys can stick to the run and really establish themselves on the ground. The Boys are still missing their All-Pro Guard Tyler Smith, and will undoubtedly get better whenever he returns to action (estimated in October.) Overall, the Cowboys offense showed a lot of promise this game and can hopefully continue to find more and more rhythm and comfort.
The defense wasn’t great, but were much better than last week. Had Jayden Daniels not gone down at the end of the second half- this game would have likely been significantly closer of a contest at the end of the 60 minutes of regulation. The Commies completed 23 passes on 35 attempts between Daniels and Mariota, totaling 207 yards and two touchdowns. Without a terrible drop by McLaurin in the endzone and an inexplicable no-catch, this should have been four touchdowns on the day. They marched all over the Cowboys- rushing for 182 total yards led by Jayden Daniels’ 69 yards in the first half. The Cowboys did not record a sack which is a troubling pattern through two weeks- Caleb Downs is the only Cowboy with a recorded sack this year. Even more dismaying- the Cowboys will have to be without starting cornerback Cobie Durant after a really unfortunate situation where his teammate stomped on his testicles on accident. Jaishawn Barham is an absolute bright spot on this defense- being ranked 3rd for LBs on PFF. They did this all without highly rated LB Demarvion Overshown This is a really young defense, and I really believe they will continue to get better and better throughout the season. Downs will hit his stride, Barham will continue to get better, and as coverages get better- this very expensive defensive line will hopefully be able to get to the quarterback with a higher frequency.
With Dart and Daniels out for the foreseeable future, the East will likely be a two-team race with Philly and the Boys. Philly narrowly escaped disaster in an extremely hot game in Nashville this weekend.
Eagles 2-0 Giants 1-1 Cowboys 1-1 Commies 0-2
The Cowboys will face the Ravens in Brazil this coming weekend in what promises to be a shitshow of a game. Reports are that the Brazilian field is not great for play- so hopefully they can come out unscathed and with a winning record.
J.A. Riley